But what if your minority tongue is a less-common language? How can you meet these key conditions of the bilingual journey when children’s books in your minority language seem hard to come by? Here are several ideas…

Additional effort

I know this is easy for me to say—especially since books in English, our minority language, are so plentiful—but I would first encourage you to be even more proactive, more resourceful, in your quest to find resources. Where are the books you need? How can you get those books into your hands? Who could help you?

There’s no getting around the fact that obtaining resources—in any language, really—costs time and money, but the payoff in stronger language ability is well worth the investment, in my opinion. Skimp on that investment and you undermine the conditions that can maximize your children’s language development.

Wordless picture books

One type of children’s book that can be “read” in any language—and I do mean any language—is the wordless picture book. Wordless picture books, which convey stories through illustrations alone, have long been one of my “secret weapons” for nurturing language ability in my kids and my students. A more versatile resource than you might imagine, these books can be used in a variety of ways, and even with older children, to nurture a wide range of language skills.

For parents struggling to locate resources, a supply of wordless picture books can be extremely helpful by providing a springboard for storytelling in the minority language. Just turn the pages and talk—it’s as simple as that. And because you aren’t bound by written text, the experience can be even richer, linguistically, than “ordinary” children’s books. In fact, research has demonstrated that wordless picture books can generate more “complex talk” from parents, and more meaningful interaction with children.

To find wordless picture books (there are hundreds of good titles out there), you might start with these links…

One more thought: Because these books lack text (or have very little text), when you want them to “model” written language for your kids, you could write out the story yourself—at whatever level of complexity suits your needs—and then (temporarily, perhaps) affix this homemade text to the pages in some fashion.

Majority language books

Of course, books in the majority language can also be “read” in the minority language: just tell the story in your own words. As with wordless picture books, you could affix your own text to the pages, too, effectively replacing the majority language text and turning them into minority language books.

Your own books

Another possibility is to create your own simple books, perhaps recounting stories from your own childhood or spinning lively adventures featuring your kids. This obviously takes more time and effort, but the results could be very rewarding and might even turn into family keepsakes. Maybe your children can be involved in the creative process, too, helping you imagine the story or provide illustrations. Who knows? Your creations may even become published books!

The hard truth

Yes, addressing the need for children’s books in a less-common minority language can be a challenge, but there’s no alternative, really, except to lower your expectations for your children’s language development. The hard truth is, if books and reading don’t form the core of your efforts, it will be hard for your children to advance to higher levels of proficiency in the minority language during childhood.

Thank you for another great post Adam, and very timely for me. My little boy is nearly 2, we live in an English-speaking country and our target language is Bosnian. While I do have a small collection of books in Bosnian and will be able to get more from time to time, it’s nothing compared to the amazing selection of English books I can get from the library.

So far I have focused on ‘picture dictionary’ type books and they have been great in developing his vocab. We look at pictures, talk about what’s what, or do a “where’s Wally” style game, in spotting objects on the page. I can highly recommend anything by Usborne.

Now that he is getting a bit older, I really want to get more into story books with him, to introduce the concept of narrative and storytelling. I have been doing a lot of on the fly translating, trying to translate exactly the same each time which is tricky, sometimes downright impossible – so many English books for this age group rely on rhyme and alliteration.

Of course, just talking about what I see on the page and roughly translating is fine, and I do that too, but I feel that kids really like repetition and hearing the same words and phrases over and over again, which they then learn by heart and can say out loud and participate in the reading of the book that way.

I think with some of the favourites, I will just go ahead and paste over my translation on top of the English. I did already have that idea, but thought it was maybe a bit silly – your post has persuaded me to go ahead! And those lists of wordless books are great, I am ordering a bunch now.

A great article with great ideas! Raising bilingual children definitely requires more effort on behalf of the parents. Your readers could take a look at http://www.thebilingualbookshop.com – hopefully we can help in their search for high quality children’s books. We also have a free guide ‘The 6 books you need to super charge your child’s language development’ which could provide further inspiration.

Thanks for this, Adam. Very timely post as I have this dilemma. My partner’s language is a dialect of Cook Islands Maori (group of 15 tiny islands in the South Pacific) and I have acquired all the possible books available (in the main dialect but close enough). We have a total of about 60 books now, most I got for free through the Ministry of Education here in New Zealand which was awesome but they aren’t producing anymore. Great idea about attaching the translation onto English books. I am now on a quest to have my partner help me translate some books into his dialect and I’ll glue it over the top. That will help me with my own language development too. Thanks!

I’m glad this post could be of some support. Your situation sounds challenging, but the good efforts you’re making will surely pay off over time in stronger language development (for both you and your children!). Keep at it, day by day!

I started to make books for my children. It’s something like baking bread for each day!!! I do it at night. In the morning it’s ready to eat!!! No one can stop me now!!! I do it also with my children. They like to stick everything!!!